Another way to die
by chocobnyluv
Summary: So Ed gets sent to Hogwarts as a mission, and soon enought trouble follows, but will that trouble be welcome, or not? No Yaoi or whatever, probably no romance too. Rated T for later chapters
1. Chapter 1

AN: Hey, so this is my first fanfic ever. At first it was just going to be a FMA fic, but lately I've been reading more and more FMAxHP. I haven't written anything in, gosh, years, so please bare with me while I hopefully recover my old writing capabilities. According to my friends and me, episode 25 never happened (nyah, what episode?). Oh, this begins after Ed 'n Al know what the Philosopher's Stone is made out of, and I kinda modernized FMA too… oh, and what if Amestris and surrounding countries actually existed today, just in the Bermuda Triangle? (which is why alchemy works there, but not magic, and why their technology is a bit… outdated)

Disclaimer: Fullmetal Alchemist belongs to Hiromu Arakawa, and Harry Potter to J.K. Rowling. I don't own anything except what my meager imagination created. Sure wish I did though…. XD

AN bottom: Please, please, please review. Even if it's to tell me that it absolutely stinks, please do!

**Ed's POV:**

The trees flashed by, blurs of green as I chased after my prey. Ahead of me I heard a thump, and skidded to a stop. Alert for an ambush, I stood in a fighting stance. Sunshine filtered in through the dense, vibrant green leaves, casting patterns of the leaf littered ground. A zephyr fluttered through the trees. A quick glance around the small clearing showed serene tranquility, no signs of movement. The forest was unnaturally silent. *snap* The sound of someone snapping their fingers cut through the calm. My muscles tensed as I prepared myself to evade an enormous ball of flame. However, the only thing that happened was a warm glow that drew my eyes to it. It looked too small to be a real threat but you never know… there was another snap in the same direction then a burst of flame to my right. Inwardly I cursed myself for being distracted by something so miniscule. Hurridly I jumped out of the way, but the trees surrounding me caught on fire. Now the whole forest was ablaze. Smoke rose, tree branches fell, but through the some there was a humanoid shaped shadow, a space free of flame.

I brought my hands together and shoved at the ground. Spikes burst forth, aimed at the figure, but it dodged to the left. His alchemy might be a tad bit faster, and he has more battle experience, but I, at least, had a plan. Alchemy already activated, spears came out and cornered the shape. My right arm already changed to a deadly blade, I sprinted to the shape which was uselessly sending fire my way. Using the burning trees to launch off of (AP: Ed's kinda like a bouncy ball. A really _small_ bouncy ball. XP) I quickly gained speed. With a glint of steel my knife was at his throat. I had won.

**Normal POV: **

"Great job chief. You just won me about thirty meals!" Breda grinned.

Fuery was crouching in the corner that was used for moping. After several years of use the carpet and walls were water-logged. They were long due for a replacement, preferably with a Red Guard coating, but the form requesting the renovation from the higher ups was awaiting a signature from the Colonel Bastard, buried under about five pounds of paperwork. Sporting several bandages Colonel Mustang opened the door and navigated his way to his desk. As a joke celebrating the New Year they had created a maze out of his paperwork, about five feet tall, instead of piling it on and around his desk like usual.

"Somebody go get Fullmetal, the Führer gave me a new mission to give him. Oh, and escort him here, with his luck he's bound to run into Scar again…"

Hawkeye volunteered, and exited the room. Somehow she always knew where Ed was, if they were in the same city that is.

Ed's POV

Al and I walked down the street, each carrying a pile of books. The hollow-sounding thumping sound that were his footsteps were drowned out by the crowd. Naturally, my own, uneven sounding footfalls were not even detectable. Even if not drawing attention by sound, eyes still drifted to the big suit of armor due to his massive size. As I carefully navigated through the mass of people, a sudden shove caused me to stumble. The top book started sliding off the pile and Al and I could only watch in horror as it fell to meet its doom in the shape of a puddle. Of course, time was going in slow motion too, as if just to rub my failure in my face. Out of nowhere a hand reached out and caught the book.

"Thanks." I said gratefully. Though, even if it had took a soaking I could have fixed it with my alchemy, but they saved me the extra effort.

"Oh, Miss Hawkeye, what a coincidence! What are you doing in town?" If he could have Al would have been grinning, alas, he couldn't, but his tone clearly portrayed his happiness of seeing her.

"Actually, looking for you two. Ed, you have a new mission." Hawkeye grabbed some books from both of our piles. We resumed our perioulus journey to our hotel.

"Already? But we just got back…" Al had been looking forward to visiting Hughes, and playing with his daughter.

"_Yes, but it's not as if that Colonel Bastard cares_." I thought darkly. "Oh well, we'll drop these off and be right over."

"I'm to come with you and escort you back."

"…fine."

Normal POV

"What's the mission this time, sir?" Fury questioned Mustang; He had always been more curious than necessary.

"You'll find out when the Fullmetal Shrimp comes." Roy replied arrogantly.

"WHO'RE YOU CALLING SO SHORT THEY COULD DROWN IN A RAIN DROP?" Ed flew at Mustang's face, which was saved by Al's quick reflexes. He had caught his brother by his foot and Edward hung upside down shouting obscenities at Mustang. After calming Ed down Mustang sat Edward down in front of his desk, with Alphonse standing behind him. "So, what's the new mission?"

"You are to go undercover as a student at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry." Mustang stated, his face perfectly serious.

"What?" Ed was dumbfounded.

"You are to go, undercover as a high school student, to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry." Mustang sighed. "It's a school, Fullmetal, that teaches magic."

"What?"

"You. On a mission. Pretending to be a-"

"No, I know. I heard the first time. Mustang, magic doesn't exist." Mustang sighed, again, in exasperation.

"Go with me here for a second, Fullmetal. And besides, it does exist, just not on this continent. Plus, this was a command from the Führer himself, to be taken care of immediately. You will be transported to King's Cross, then from there a town called Hogsmeade. There you will meet your escort to the school at a restaurant called The Hog's Head."

"Fine. Not like I have a choice anyways." Ed crossed his arms over his chest in irritation. '_Geeze, what's with these people and pigs?_'

"Here's your briefing as well as your story. Have it all memorized by tomorrow, and report back here before going to catch your train."

"Ya, whatever. Come on Al let's go, we have stuff to pack."

"Wait a minute Ed." Mustang looked down and awkwardly shuffled the papers on his desk. Ed stopped, his hand resting on the doorframe. After clearing his throat, Mustang continued. "Um, about that… Alphonse can't come with you on this one." Mustang inwardly flinched under Ed's glare. You could, quite literally, see the flame in his golden eyes.

"Why ever in the world not? He could be a student too!"

"It wasn't my decision Ed!" Mustang was on his feet, hands planted on either side of his desk. "It was the choice of the higher ups! I can't do anything against them, especially not when I need them to be on my side when I become Führer." The room got tenser as sparks flew in between the two. Mustang sat back down and wearily rubbed the bridge of his nose, pinching it as if to ward off a coming headache.

"Thinks about it Ed. If Alphonse went with you, the result could be catastrophic for the two of you. Especially if people found out that he is empty. He would be far safer here. At least here his safety would be assured, and you could fully devote yourself to the mission." Mustang reasoned. The tenseness was still there, but lessened as Ed began to see Mustang's logic.

"Fine Colonel Bastard, but you're responsible if he pick up any cats."

"Awww, but Edward! It wasn't my fault. They were just sitting there, and looked up at me! I swear one of them told me to pick them up. Not faiiiiiirrrrrreeee brother." Al protested. Ed raised his eyebrows at Mustang as if to say, 'see what I mean?'

"You're so cruel brother!" Alphonse rushed from the room, comically rubbing his eyes even though a suit of armor is incapable of producing tears.

"Hey Al wait up! Aaaaallllllllll!" E jogged after his brother. The office gave a relieved sigh as the Elric brothers disappeared from sight.

The next morning Ed grabbed his travel suitcase and left for HQ, accompanied by Al. Edward preferred to drive, but Al insisted that they walk. It was a nice day, after all, and it would let him be with his brother for a while longer than a cab would allow. Together they strode down the busy, but not yet crowded, streets. The sun was coming over the horizon, signaling the start to another day. After meeting up with Mustang the next morning, the brothers walked to the train station. Of course, by the time that Al dragged Ed, kicking and screaming profanities at Mustang, out of HQ the sun was clearly visible and a breeze had picked up. However, the sun was shining, it was warm, and there was not a cloud in the sky. After several more minutes of walking Al had to say goodbye to Ed, at the train station.

It was a monster of a building, this train station. The normal train station that Ed would have taken was only for inside the country. This one went every where, and as such it was huge. The architect who designed it was very, very fond of reptiles, so the structure had an animalesque feel. Two large stained glass windows acted as eyes, and the tiled roof had a distinctive resemblance to the scales of a lizard. The columns holding up the roof also were covered in scales, but ended in a plant bowl with a likeness of clawed feet (the flowers were red… blood red). Not only was the building wide, but also quite tall. Foreign travelers had to pass through to get their passports stamped, not to mention that it was the only city, besides central, that could issue passports to the public.

Ed waited for an hour in the relatively short line for people to go out of the country. Because the train station was literally in both countries, both countries had a floor each for their needs. After getting his brand-new passport stamped, Ed proceeded to his train to load his luggage. He still ended up with an hour to spare. Thankfully, there was a nearby bookstore and café. After getting a not-so-small snack from the café Ed hurried over to the store, hoping to find some ancient books about alchemy and the Philosopher's Stone.

As he opened the door, a bell tinkled somewhere within the store. When Ed stepped in and closed his eyes, breathing deeply, the smell of books surrounded him, calming him down. It was almost like he was back in the library with Al, researching a way to get their bodies back. He opened his eyes and his mouth dropped down to the floor. For a bookstore, it was enormous. The original bookstore owner had bought all the surrounding stores and knocked down the walls to turn it into one giant store. It. Was. Heaven, at least to Edward it was.

There were floor to ceiling bookshelves that were stuffed full of books- no, overflowing with books. They were stacked on top one another in the utmost care, and placed in strategic piles in the middle of the isle. Heck, there were even shelves that hung from the ceiling in-between the gigantic bookshelves. The rows went back and forth, continuing all the way down to the wall. Instead of where there would normally be spaces for people to pass through, there were bookshelves that seemed to be cut horizontally in half, the bottom half missing, suspended amongst the surrounding shelves with just enough room for people to pass underneath. To maximize the room for books even more, the only visible windows were the shop front. The chairs that were scattered around the sore were very plush, one could almost get lost in them, and they were very, very comfortable. There was no central theme to the decoration and furniture, except everything had a very old feel to it. Even the floor looked as old as the big trees that were fifteen feet in diameter. In fact, they were probably made when those trees were just saplings.

After recovering from the initial shock Ed dove right in. Good thing that the whole mission was funded by the military, even Ed's seemingly endless bank account would have been completely devastated. Luckily for Ed the store offered to send the books to his hotel. He sent the majority of them with a memorandum to Al, telling him that he could read them if he wanted to, and that some of them would be beneficial to their research.

Right as he was leaving the store with his new purchase he heard a conductor's 'All aboard!' and it was for… his train! Since he had already stored his luggage he only had his bag of books, and even though they were quite heavy Ed sprinted to the train, narrowly slipping through the closing doors. A few people still moving into their compartments (the train ride would take a few days, so they got separate compartments with a fold out bed) looked at him strangely, but decided that they couldn't form any really juicy gossip about this stranger, and left him to his own devices.

* * *

AN bottom: Please, please, please review. Even if it's to tell me that it absolutely stinks, please do! I probably won't post a new chapter untill I get at least oh, lets say two reviews (I have low expectations, da?)


	2. Chapter 2

AN: I got tired of switching POVs so many times, so I decided, to keep a mostly normal POV. So in Answer to Anarion Star-Dragon's question, I was thinking of putting Ed in the second to last book (Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince). Oh, and _this _means that they are thinking, not saying, whatever is italicized, or is a word that's stressed. OH, and my friend made up the middle names for Ed and Al. This is specially written for the birthday of a friend, 8NobodyKnows8.

This is also the edited unedited version. I tend to edit things three times, but this is edited only once, so please pardon my mistakes (and tell them to me so I can fix it!)

Ed's Briefing Summary:

Ed is to go as a last year student ambassador of ASOMAA (Amestris School of Magic and Alchemy). His name is Edward Beethoven Elric, age 17, and birthday of February third, though he's actually sixteen. He has one brother, Alphonse Hublablahburbblan Elric, age fourteen, and his mother, Riza Hawkeye Elric, Age 28. Their father died when they were three. No other known relations.

* * *

When the train finally rolled into the final station Edward was sleepily collecting his books and returning them to his bag. After days on the train he felt sore all over from the lack of exercise. His compartment was too small to do any physical activity, and the train only had a dining area and a place where they could look out and view the land zipping by. After the second day he had finished all of the books that he had brought with him, and had to be content with reading them all over again. Finally his journey was done, and he could get off of this dumb old train.

Stepping off onto the concrete sidewalk he stretched, wincing as what felt like every joint in his back popped, but boy did he feel better to be able to stretch his legs. When he walked to the end on the train to retrieve his luggage he couldn't help but noticing that two of the people, a man and woman, that were waiting by the train wore these weird dress things. The man had a beard that was the longest beard Ed had ever seen in his life, it could have wrapped twice around the train. Shaking it off as a weird cultural tradition, Ed grabbed his luggage and turned to leave. Staring, and avoiding, the strange couple became even harder when an almost equally old woman standing next to him raised a sign with his symbol on it. Obviously these two were the ones that were supposed to pick him up. You could also tell that they were a group because she was wearing the exact thing he was, just in black instead of midnight blue. She was wearing an abnormal, pointy, gray hat.

Picking his way through the dense crowd Ed made his way toward the two strangers. They looked oddly out of place, so even when Ed got swallowed up by the crowd he could still easily see the beacon of light that was her hat, sticking a full foot above the heads of the group. Stopping in front of them, he balanced on the balls of his feet to avoid being toppled by the push and shove of the throng. Putting his hands on his knees and still weak from the inactivity of the past few days (not to mention the faint amount of jet lab), Ed gasped two big gulps of air then recovered, and attempted to do a bow. The people that were rushing by hindered the movement, but they could clearly see it. The old man gave a bow in return, and the old woman tried to, but you could distinctly see that she was unused to such movement.

"You would be a Mr. Elric, I presume." The lady with the hat asked.

"Yes ma'am." Izumi and his mother (his real one) and Riza had taught him to be polite to his elders: Izumi with her knives, Riza with her guns, and Trisha with her examples and kindness.

"Please follow us." The sign appeared to disappear into thin air as the two turned and started to walk away. Ed trailed after them like a (for lack of a better word…) dog. After exiting the station the man and woman, who he now knew were called McGonagall and Dumbledore, kept on walking until they were a deserted beach.

Never before had Ed ever seen such a large expanse of water. Even the biggest lakes back home couldn't even compare to this. Actually they could, and were probably, from what he could see, two seventeenths of the size of this sea. It also smelled like an extremely repulsive type of soup that Fury had introduced him to, then made him eat (more like force-fed) after he learned that Ed found it vile. What had he called it? Ah. Seaweed, Ed remembered now and shuddered in disgust. It also smelled salty. Once Ed had started thinking of home, he found that he couldn't stop. Memories of playing at the beach with Al and Winry dug their way out from the other memoirs that had buried them. He imagined him, Al, and Winry with Izumi and her husband here. Al would love it. He would be making a sand castle, just like back home at the lake. He always made the best castles. Of course, knowing him, he would build it too close to the water, and would ask Ed and Winry to dig a trench to stem the flow of the water, protecting his castle from harm.

Izumi would have brought a chair, and probably her newest book, reading in the shade of an umbrella with Sig by her side. Ed gave a rare, true smile, and turned to rejoin McGonagall and Dumbledore. Bored, as they were just standing around, he sat down on a decent sized rock, setting down his suitcase next to him, and waited for them to finish whatever they were doing. After a quick, hushed conversation, Dumbledore looked around suspiciously and drew out a stick. Amused, Ed grinned when it got stuck in his dress.

Ha, that's what you get for wearing such an unrealistic dress. Ed's grin got wider. After Dumbledore eventually untangled his wand from his pocket he majestically, not to mention over dramatically, raised it and gave it a swish.

"Accio portkey." To Ed's astonishment the rock that he was using as a stool shot out from under him, causing him to tumble and land on his butt. He cursed, sat up, and grabbed his suitcase, walking to where Dumbledore and McGonagall were. Currently, Ed was in a state of denial, the rock couldn't have possibly just floated over there, could it? "Mr. Elric, please touch this rock."

"Umm, what?" Ed was confuzzled.

"This rock is now our method of transportation, it's called a portkey." Ed decided to research this 'portkey' thing once he got to… wherever they were going. Hesitantly Ed put a finger on the rock and tightened his hold on his travel case. All of a sudden there was a dizzying sensation, the world had begun to swirl, blurring into a kaleidoscope of colors. Then the colors reformed into shapes and the dropped, freefalling for what felt like minutes. Finally they landed. Dumbledore and McGonagall appeared surprised to see him still standing. Ed didn't know why, anyone with a half-way decent balance could have easily kept their footing as it was, Ed balanced on the balls of his feet, not sprawled on the floor like all other first-time users. (AN: heh, I make it sound like a drug.) The people in the… pub that they had appeared in weren't surprised by their sudden appearance. _They must be used to it, somehow. _Ed thought.

The pub seemed to fully define the word grungy at first, but a closer inspection revealed that it could actually be considered as sanitary. The cloths that were used to clean the glasses only appeared dirty from years of use and the frequent washings had caused the dye in the cloths to fade and slightly bleed, burring the lines of what was once a picture. The lighting was designed to be easy on the eyes when coming from an extremely light or dark place. If cleaned up, then the tables could pass off as decent. The chairs were worn smooth with use on the seat, and notches of wood were missing from the legs. A colossal fireplace had a mantle made of slate, and was providing the room with the majority of it's warmth. The alcohol would do the rest. On the far left there was a spiral staircase, also made of a dark wood. A bar ran alongside the far wall, with bottles lining the walls and everything. A couple of glasses were being cleaned with the said rags, all by themselves. They were floating there, with the rags swirling inside of them, cleaning out the inside and rim. Pondering what type of circle could cause this to happen, without a rebound, Ed practically jumped when a voice interrupted his thoughts.

"Dumbledore and… McGonagall, what a pleasant surprise! What can I do for you?" The barkeeper- Tom took a while to remember her name, his eyes lit with recognition, then were once again clouded with confusion when he saw Ed, standing slightly off to the side, but still an obvious member of their group. Ed's eyebrows rose as Ed assumed that Dumbledore must be famous, or at least really well known, or come here often. Watching the ease that Dumbledore was able to navigate his way across the room, through the hustle and bustle made Ed confirm it as the latter.

"Nothing for now Tom, We'll need a room for Mr. Elric, though."

"Oh? I'll make sure to have a room ready. Actually," Tom paused for careful consideration. "I have a room that will suit him nicely, room 42." Tom went back to serving his customers, but not until after sliding a pair of keys across the counter to Dumbledore's expectant hand.

"Give me your suitcase, Ed, after you take out your money of course. I'll send it up to your room." Ed complied, and McGonagall lead the way toward what could only be a back door. Dumbledore left soon after her, his task completed, but a man dressed in grimy robes, who insisted that Ed was a girl and they should 'get together', prevented Edward from following. After finally dodging and loosing the man in the small, practically nonexistent crowd, (hey, the man was drunk so it wasn't that hard…) Ed rejoined the two in time to see quick movement, the remains of the wall separating. Ed couldn't help but give the wall a stare, and patting it to make sure that it was indeed what it appeared to be, a simple brick wall. Only then was he able to admire the magnificence that was in front of him.

It was a crowded alleyway, with vendors on the side and a mob of people in between, dressed in more dresses. Shops lined the sides, the fronts displaying multiple strange, and often old-fashioned, items with colorful stands draped in what appeared to be silk. The road was made of dust brown cobblestones; in fact everything seemed to be old fashioned. The buildings resembled the historic part of Central, with the exception of the biggest building on the road. A building that was labeled Gringotts Bank.

"Before I forget, I wanted to give you this." Dumbledore gave Ed a small, black bag with a loop, so that it could be attached to a belt. "It's for you to store your money in. Undoubtedly our money is heavier than yours. It has a charm on it: the inside is far bigger than you could imagine." With that not very good explanation of Ed's new wallet, Dumbledore switched gears. "First we'll need to go to the Bank, then we can go shopping."

Stepping into the alley (which he later found out was called Diagon alley) they made their way through the crowd to the big impressive marble building. The bank had very shiny floors, and Ed couldn't help but think of what fun it would be for him and Al, once he got his body back, to take off their shoes and slide across the overly large room in their socks. He would just have to do his best with his research when he was away. Hogwarts School for Witchcraft and Wizardry was supposed to have the biggest library in the world, so hopefully something would get done. Leaving his thoughts and resuming his close inspection of the bank showed that Dumbledore and McGonagall had completely left him standing there in favor of going to talk to this…Chimera of who knows what with who knows what. Seriously, he had no idea. Spying a counter labeled 'Foreign Exchange' Ed headed over there content to wait in line until it was his turn. The time finally came and he stepped up to the teller, passing over the traveler's checks as well as the note card explaining that Ed was to have a temporary account that would accept having money wired over from Amestris, to which the Chimera promptly tutted and jumped off of the stool, to go consult with another Chimera across the room. It returned after a few minutes of conversation.

"We haven't had any requests from the country of Amestris for a very long time, several hundred years in fact." It said as a way of explanation. "I wanted to make sure that I have the correct exchange rates." It drew some coins out and placed them out onto the counter, stacking them in different piles. "There are seventeen Sickles, that's the silver one there, to a Galleon, the gold one, and there are twenty nine Knuts to a Sickle. The Knuts are the bronze ones there." Ed nodded in understanding, and swept his new money into his equally new bag. _This,_ he thought, _was going to take some getting used to._ Surprisingly the bag didn't get heavier, or bulge, despite the unusually large amount of coins he had just put in it. The job done, Ed turned and followed Dumbledore and McGonagall, who were waiting for him, out of the bank and into the river of people outside.

"Since you already have your wand, we just need to buy your other school supplies. First we'll get your robes." McGonagall informed Ed.

"Wait robes? That wouldn't be what they call what you're wearing are they? 'Cause there's no way I'm going to wear a dress." Ed scowled at the thought.

"Yes, . This dress –as you put it- that I am wear is called a robe. And yes, you do need to get one. It's part of the school dress code." McGonagall sniffed in disdain, whether it was at his informal words, or him calling it a dress, he didn't know. Mustang had told him that if he didn't behave (AN: then he'll turn him into a goon! No… not really. Just had to put that in there) then he would take away their research privileges, so Ed had no choice but to follow them into the dress shop and submit himself to a fitting. Next on their list were his schoolbooks. The bookstore was even bigger than the one at the train station, and according to Dumbledore, the school library was even bigger than this! Surely that wouldn't even be possible.

Ed had a field day in that store, but not only the books required for the year he was transferring into, but also all the books for all of the years. He hid this fact from his two babysitters, they wouldn't understand why he had bought the ones for the years below his anyway, and that would cause unnecessary questions. He had the shopkeeper double bag them, so that there was no chance of the bag breaking. It also conveniently was thick enough that the book titles could not be read through the bag. Dumbledore showed no signs of surprise at the amount of books that he bought, but McGonagall was taken aback (by the look on her face) not by the amount of books bought, but the ease of which he carried them.

He had one bag in his left hand, and two bags slung over his shoulder. The way he carried them made it look like they weighed no more than three pounds per bag, but McGonagall knew from experience that each bag must have weighed 20 pounds, if not more. Dumbledore gestured to the bag at his feet. Likewise, it was double bagged.

"I have gone through the liberty of buying your books for this year. Consider it my welcome gift. He paused, looking at the bags that Ed was already carrying. "From the looks of things I will have to carry it." He frowned, as if considering if he possibly _could_ carry it.

"No it's fine." Edward protested. There was no way, judging by the size of the bag, that this old man could carry it. He was surprised that he managed to make it to the front of the store, nonetheless pick it up at all. Dumbledore shrugged and handed Ed the bag, who added it to the bag being carried by his left arm. "If you don't mind, though, I would like to head back to where I will be staying until the start of school so I can drop these off." Dumbledore and McGonagall nodded in understanding and McGonagall motioned for Ed to follow her. They walked back the way that they had came, waded through the crowd, and reentered the pub.

"We're here to drop off some objects." Dumbledore informed Tom, who had glanced questionably at them when they had walked back through the door. Dumbledore led the way up the stairs into a hallway lined with doors that had gold numbers glued onto them. They stopped in front of a door labeled 42, and waited while Dumbledore fished the key out of his multiple pockets. Once the door was unlocked he opened it, to reveal a well-kept room.

The floor was a chestnut colored wood that was worn down and damaged with use in multiple places. The bed and dresser were both made of a similar colored wood, though not quite the same shade. A window that opened up to a bustling street filled with normal-looking people was framed by pure white curtains, the walls and ceiling painted a light green that complimented the curtains and floor. The color scheme continued on into the bathroom that presented Ed with a white porcelain bathtub with a matching toilet and sink. Above the sink was a mirror with a white frame and a chipped corner. Hidden by the frame was a slight crack, both the crack and chipped corner were well hidden by the frame and were barely noticeable in the dim light. There were no pictures hanging off the walls, instead there were lamps that let out a surprisingly steady glow.

Ed walked back out of the bathroom and set the books on top of the bed. He sighed, content for now, as he rejoined the two outside his room. Dumbledore and McGonagall had patiently waited for Ed to finish his inspection of the room. He closed the door, then Dumbledore locked it, passing the key to Edward.

"Now that you know where it is, I'll give this to you so you can get back in." Ed slipped it into the bag containing the coins. As they exited the Leaky Cauldron, back into Diagon Alley, the alley was noticeably less crowded, the sun low in the sky. The triad made good time, first stopping by the dress store to pick up and pay for Ed's completed robes, then off to get supplies for potions. Finally they entered the pet store on the far end.

Squawks and squeals as well as sever hoots made Ed look around the store, noticing the many different kinds of birds, more of owls, and rats in the store. Shying away from the rats he made for the owls. The faint smell of animal food and dead things filled his nose. The store was swept and orderly. Cages lined the walls and empty ones were hanging from the ceiling. Inwardly Ed winced, his inner Alphonse coming out as he watched the Owls and assorted birds lamenting as they tried to stretch their wings, which were blocked by the metal walls of the wire cages. His inner Alphonse, once out, refused to leave and lead him to a separate room off to the side. His heart leapt at the sight of cats. Immediately he was drawn to the glass cages containing Calico Cats, his personal favorite type of cats. He would never tell Al or let anyone find out, but it killed him as much as Alphonse to make him put the cats that he collected back out onto the streets.

There was one particular Calico that caught his eye. It's fur was white with black and gold splotches, one in the shape of a reversed Ouroboros on it's right hind leg, over all a normal Calico with soft luxurious-looking fur. However, it's shoulders were very bony, like two bumps were sticking out of it's back, causing it to limp. Ed glanced around and, seeing nobody, lifted the lid on the cage, reached in, and brought out the kitten, stroking it. Since Lan Fan had taught him and Al how to sense the homunculi's presence he tried that now. There wasn't a single homunculi within his range. He smiled, relieved, and walked toward where the shopkeeper was.

"I would like to buy this cat." Ed informed him, slightly angry when a puzzled look crossed the man's face.

"Are you sure sir? The deformity that she has (her shoulders) will cause her to limp and be ungainly. When she gets older she'll have a major joint problem with them. Now over here we have another fine cat more suited to your tastes and-"

"I will take her." Ed interrupted him as the man tried to lead him off to the glass cages again, and stared him down. The shopkeeper found himself drowning in the gold of his eyes. Not the good feeling of drowning (if it could be called that) that he hade once his wife had crossed eyes with him when they had first met, but more of the deer caught in the headlights kind. All of a sudden his mouth was dry and his hands started to tremble. He had no idea why, for how could he be afraid of someone who was less than half his age? The goldness of his eyes unnerved him, throwing his mind off track. Vaguely he recalled that Werewolves had golden eyes. Perhaps that was why the kid had gotten so mad; maybe he had a strong connection with his kin. But no- Werewolves were a form of wolf, which was a relative of dogs, not cats. This thought process took only a few seconds, but to the shopkeeper it felt like hours.

While this was happening, Dumbledore and McGonagall were watching. McGonagall was quite shocked that this seventeen year old boy could stare down a man who was 50 years his elder and lived through Voldemort's reign. Almost as if sensing Ed's hostility, the kitten brought back her ears and bared her miniature fangs at the man, her gentle purring gone. Dumbledore was outwardly perfectly calm, but inside he was watching the scene with interest. _This boy would be good to have on his side…_

"Ok, um, then that would be two gallons and three sickles." Shopkeeper barely got the words out of his mouth, and just spitted out numbers instead of the usual price. That would be coming out of his paycheck for sure. Ed had successfully stared him down, causing him to break and give in. After fishing out the required money for is new cat, Dumbledore came over to inspect Ed's choice.

"You have a… good eye for cats. She's devoted to you already." He smiled and reached out to pet her. His smile vanished as her eyes once again narrowed and she hissed, swiping at his had with her claws, drawing blood. McGonagall gave a gasp of surprise and started forward to scold the cat, but stooped as Dumbledore smiled and chuckled to himself, as if he approved the kitten's action. "And not only devoted but also protective, she'll take good care of you if you should get in trouble."

Ed grinned, relieved that he wasn't in trouble, if he got in trouble on his first day of the mission Mustang would kill him. The exited the store after McGonagall did a quick-fix healing spell on Dumbledore's would to find the street nearly deserted compared to earlier in the day, and the sun was setting, casting a warm glow on the stores. The whole alley was transformed. The majority of the vendors were gone, packed up for the night, clearing a good deal of the street. While they were browsing somebody had cleaned up any trash and dust on the street. The cobblestones were no longer brown, but a gray black with silver flecks. The gutter was cleaned and no longer smelled disgusting: like blood, rotting meat, sweat, and other body odors. Shop fronts were cleared of children with grimy fingers, always touching and smearing grease on the windows. Said windows were also cleaned, making the view of the objects inside sharper and more distinct.

The walk down the street was more pleasant this time around, and Ed set his new kitten down so she could run around and explore to her heart's content. The door to the Leaky Cauldron opened and the smell of stew wafted out, teasing him with its delicious smell. His stomach grumbled, reminding him that he hadn't eaten since the breakfast on the train. Loaded with their purchases which were, like his suitcase, sent off to his room, McGonagall, Dumbledore and Ed headed to a table. However, McGonagall and Dumbledore had to leave to attend to things at the school, so he was left by himself for dinner. It was times like these that he really missed Al…

* * *

Dumbledore's POV (kinda):

The boy intrigued him. This 'Edward Elric' was hiding something, but what he couldn't tell. Once he had tried to enter the boy's mind, but he had impressive shields up that even he couldn't break. Ed always had his guard up, even when he appeared to be at ease. Little movements and things- like the way that he balanced or carried himself- made him seem like one of those Kung Fu Ninja people from the Muggle movements that Charity Burbage made him watch. Something was off, and he was going to find out what. After what happened with Moody, he couldn't let the same thing happen again. Harry could have _died_. Cedric did, and it saddened him that Harry had to watch his… friend die, but his death was a minor inconvenience. If Harry had died than they would be done for. His plan would be ruined.


	3. Chapter 3

AN: So I decided to fully explain why Amestris and surrounding countries are in the Bermuda Triangle. So, the reason why people who go in there don't come out (at least that I know of) is because the technology of Amestris can't support the more advanced technology of the outside world, so it they're in a plane the engines can't work, so they fall to their deaths. The boats just loose their navigation system and engines, and usually just crash into a cliff or something… they also die. Plus, there are only certain, correct ways, to pass the barrier of the triangle. They are: the gate, a portkey, and… that's all. So really, people who go in usually die. Yep. It's also sort of a gray area, so not too terribly much is known about it, which makes it perfect. That's…pretty much it.

oh, but I realized that I had some aspects that were…incorrect when compared to the book, so hopefully those are fixed now…but a few paragraphs into this I lost my book so… sorry for any inconsistencies!

*Note* This chapter has been edited for the author's stupidity. For those of you who have read this chapter before, the main thing that was changed was the scene at Olivander's shop.

Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter or Fullmetal Alchemist… so deal!

* * *

Sunlight filtered in through the window, lighting the room with a warm, steady glow. With the increase of light, the figure of Ed, lying sprawled across the bed, twitched. His hair was spread messily out across the pillow, neat braid undone. The covers were kicked off revealing his metal limbs, which shined and glinted in the sunlight. A small groan escaped from lips cracked half open, as his arm rose to cover his eyes, disturbing the kitten lying at his side.

Black pajama pants were pushed up past his knees, revealing his fake leg. An equally black, tight fitting tank top adorned his upper half. The kitten pounced, toying with his hair in an attempt to wake him up. Ed rolled over, revealing the back of his tank top, which had the Flamel symbol embroidered in bright red on it. After finding that her current method wasn't working, or going to work, the kitten jumped onto his back, walking back and forth twice, then laid on Ed's shoulders. She stuck her nose into Ed's ear, and blew out

"Argh!" With a cry Ed rolled over again, falling out of bed with a thump. He scowled at the kitten, who had jumped off at the first sign of movement and was now sitting on the edge of the bed, meowing triumphantly. He rubbed the sleep from his eyes, climbed up to his feet using the nightstand, then froze. He had finally woken up and registered how _bright_ it was outside. "Shit!" he was supposed to get an early start, and judging from the position of the sun in the sky, it was well past eight. After a quick shower, he dressed in his usual, trademark outfit with his normal braid. With his kitten winding between his legs and running in circles around him, he set off to get a quick breakfast before heading off.

He chose a solitary table where he could easily observe his surroundings, and called over a waiter –or a person who he assumed was a waiter- ordering bacon, eggs, and a slice of toast along with orange juice for breakfast. Never before had he had such a large amount of jet lag (1), so sleeping in (even unintentional) and the familiar food was more than welcome. With his kitten on his shoulder, and his wallet (2) safely looped around his belt and tucked firmly away in his pocket with his pocket watch, Ed set off for Diagon Alley. Many other people had the same idea as him, and he somehow managed to get stuck in the doorframe with a girl, no older than him with surprisingly bushy hair. After a quick apology he let her go through the door first, and followed directly after, securely closing the door behind him.

Instead of an alley way he only way a dull, brick wall and a few overflowing trashcans. Confused, Ed wondered if he had accidentally left through the wrong door, when the teenage girl strode purposely to the far wall where the entrance to the alley used to be, drew a wand out of her robes, and started tapping bricks of the wall. Ed couldn't help but stare; the girl had surely lost her marbles. With a last poke she stood back as if expecting it to do something. There was a twitch, the slightest bit of movement, and then Ed watched in awe as the wall reformed before his eyes. '_Where was the equivalence?' _The girl glanced behind her and, wrongly interpreting his confusion as slack-jawed amazement, grinned and gave a slight chuckle.

"First time here?" She asked kindly, though her eyes had a certain, guarded look.

"No I just… entered through a different way last time." Ed quickly recovered and strode into the crowd, partly to get food for the cat meowing loudly into his ear, and partly to get away from the girl.

"Well, I haven't come here too often myself," She jogged after him, babbling about the different times she had visited. "It's my second to last year at my school, Hogwarts of course, I'm a Gryffindor you know." She said this proudly, puffing out her chest and strutting like a peacock. Eyeing her out of the corner of his eye, Ed couldn't help but let his mask slip into a small smile; she was so prideful about her house….

'_Pride…_' his smile turned into a grimace. Mustang had said that he would keep Al safe, but these were homunculi that they were talking about, beings who could transform into other people, extend their fingers, swallow a whole house… Worry for his brother consumed his mind, his shoulders visibly slumped, his visage darkened.

"Have you, um, met Harry?" Snapping out of his thoughts Ed looked at her curiously.

'_What had she been talking about_?'

"Once I mentioned him you looked so angry and depressed, have you met him before? Why don't you like him? The Daily Prophet is all lies you know and-"

"No." Edward interrupted her, he hadn't even been aware that she had continued talking. "I have never heard of or met you friend 'Harry'." At this the girl looked surprised, then shrugged it off. Somehow he would have too loose this girl. Practically everything about her annoyed him; her 'better than thou' attitude, the way she just wouldn't _shut up_, and her bossy personality. Ed had never been one for following orders or letting himself be pushed around.

"Oh! Where are my manners?"

'_Somewhere on the other side of the world_.' Ed thought with an eye roll.

"My name's Hermione! What's yours?" She beamed, looking down at him. (AN: Ha! Short stacks!)

"Didn't your mom teach you never to talk to strangers, kid?" Ed sneered; she seemed taken back by his sudden change of attitude. '_Yes, maybe now she'll leave me alone!_' He wanted to be alone, but fat chance that this girl was going to let that happen. He was not a morning person. The kitten moved to his other shoulder to inspect this new curiosity. Apparently she hadn't noticed the kitten sitting of Ed's shoulder.

"A kitten! I have a cat too you know, his name is Crookshanks, Ron positively hates him, but I think that he's just being stubborn…" Ed once again tuned out her mindless chatter. She was holding his kitten now, so there wasn't the slightest chance of loosing her until she returned it. With yet another eye roll from Ed, Hermione tagged along while he finally got pet supplies for is kitten. In this instance she proved useful, she got a store bag and used her magic to make it like his wallet. It barely weighed anything, even with 25 pounds of cat food (he was going to buy 90 pounds, until Hermione told him that food for their animals were provided by the school), various toys, and many, many treats. "So… what's her-is it a her?- name?" Hermione asked as they exited the store.

"She doesn't have a name yet." He frowned, during the excitement of the previous day he had completely forgot to name her.

"Oh! I can help, why not Iggy, or Mint, Mahanada, Chou (3), or-"

"I was thinking Ammy (4)." Edward interrupted. Who would name a cat after a plant or a guy's name? Ammy was… different. She wouldn't be weighted down by the expectations as she would have if he named her after someone. The best he could come up with for now, though it seemed more like a dogs name than a cats.

"Ammy? That's… unique." Hermione seemed puzzled as her face screwed up in concentration and confusion. "Does it have any special meaning to it?"

"No." He stiffly answered. To Hermione he seemed to relax, then slump a bit. "I just like it, 's all." She shifted, and placed her in her left hand as she stopped walking, using her other hand to fish around in the pocket of her robes. Ed stopped and backtracked to join her, standing by her side to see what she was doing.

"Well then, I dub thee Ammy, you may now stand and greet your king." Using her wand she gently tapped the cat's shoulders. Almost as if playing along, Ammy stretched across the gap and solidly placed one paw on Ed's shoulder, batting at his forehead with the other.

"Mah!" The cat exclaimed, continuing to assault his head. Ed couldn't help but grin as he carefully retrieved his cat from her hand.

"Oh, so where to next um…?" Hermione looked puzzled as she tried to remember the name she didn't know.

I have to get a wand, oh and my name is-"

"Well if it's a wand you want than Olivander's' is the place to go!" Ed was inwardly baffled. Since when had he asked for a tour guide? Plus, Hermione had very rudely interrupted him (which really got on his nerves…that, being called the S word, and not being taken seriously) and, seeing as this was the third time that she had done this, it must be a terrible habit. He grumbled in irritation, saying something that was intelligible to anyone but Ammy, that he was already going and she didn't have to be such a push body, but she grabbed his left hand and pulled him off into the swarm of people. Ammy almost fell off his shoulder, but luckily dug her claws in the nick of time into the fabric of his jacket. Finally Hermione slid to a stop in front of a particularly old store. "Here we are!" She cheerfully panted, struggling to regain her breath, a light sweat on her forehead. Ed, however, wasn't fatigued at all. With a tinkling of a bell, the door was opened as the three (this is including Ammy) stepped into the shop.

It was a semi-dusty, old shop that smelled faintly like old books and spices. Rickety old chestnut chairs for customers to sit in lined the wall by the door, a bulky desk centered in front of them. It was also made out of chestnut and, judging by the amount of dents, chips, and scratches, had been in use for many years. Rows upon rows of shelves stuffed full of boxes disappeared beyond the desk in the gloom. The floor was clean, though not spotless, and the meager lights could not hide the presence of cobwebs, stretching across distances to connect different parts of the room. The desk and chairs seemed to be the only relatively clean thing in the store.

"Ah, Miss Granger, vine wood with a Dragon Heartstring core." A man appeared from the gloom, half hunched over with old age. "I trust that everything is well."

"Yes, thank you sir, I'm just here with my friend… um, to get his wand." Her nose scrunched in baffled confusion as she realized, once again, that though her new friend knew practically everything about her life, she still didn't know his name.

"It's Edward Elric." He supplied, faintly amused that she had taken so long to realize that she didn't know his name.

"Well then, Mr. Elric, hold out your wand arm please, what ever arm you write with." He clarified upon seeing Ed's confusion. Ed held out his left arm. Ever since their… unfortunate experiment he was forced to use his left arm, and, though he was originally right handed, from what he had seen of magic, it required a finesse that would be next to impossible with his automail arm. After submitting his arm to a magical tape measurer, Olivander returned from his hunt among the shelves with five boxes tucked securely under each arm. Edward sighed, gazing longingly out the window toward the crowded street filled with new things and places to discover before returning his wistful gaze to the man standing in front of him, backed by a plethora of shelves. He could tell that this was going to take a very, very long time.

He grabbed the wand being handed to him, purple sparks that reminded him of a transmutation gone wrong shot out of the top, and it flew into the wall, burying its tip inches deep into the wood and cracking in half. Eyebrows rose all around in surprise as they stared in amazement. After a few more seconds of absolute silence, Hermione snapped out of her stunned reverie.

"That isn't normal, what just…?" Her head whipped back from Ed, still standing with his arm held out, to the wand embedded in the wall. Ed slowly lowered his arm back to his side, and the shopkeeper nervously cleared his throat.

"Well that was a no; let's try some other ones then." He handed the other wands, one by one, to Ed and, one by one, they all joined the other, turning the wall into a dartboard. Finally, the last wand was set back in it's box, leaving Olivander wringing his hands in misery and embarrassment.

"I'm terribly sorry, Mr. Elric, but every wand in this store that had the slightest possible chance of choosing you has been tried. Now I feel that, given time, I would be able to make a suitable wand, but it is impossible in the few weeks before the school year begins. Therefore, I must recommend a different shop, one that's run by a close acquaintance of mine. When I cannot find a compatible wand, I send people to him and he sets them up right soon enough with a wand." They received directions and were off, with a quick thank you to Olivander, to continue their search for a suitable wand. At last, they found themselves standing in front of what must have been the wand shop that Olivander had recommended. Not only was it the only other wand shop that they had seen since, but the description that Olivander had gave them matched, as well as the name.

Peeking up through his bangs, Ed's eyebrows rose in suspicion. It looked so run down and dustier that Olivander's, giving it an abandoned look. He strode up to the door, Hermione following meekly. Entering the shop Ed couldn't help but be surprised at the noticeable difference, and he found himself agreeing avidly to the taste of décor. It was as clean as a hospital unlike what the outside suggested, but without the smell of bleach, disinfectant, and obviously fake and overly sweet air freshener. He took in the intricately carved desk made out of stone and carved into an ancient Xingese dragon before turning his attention to the gargoyles perched on the edge of each shelf, which were filled with neatly stacked wand boxes. The chairs in the room ended in clawed feet, armrests completed with roaring lion heads at the ends, were worn smooth with use, and with plush, dark red cushions. Sunlight filtered in through stained glass windows depicting Greek myths. Pictures of mythological creatures (dragons, nymphs, centaurs, the minotaur, etc.) hung from the walls, perfectly straight when compared to the floorboard.

"Ah Mr. Elric, you must be here to claim your wand."

* * *

(1) Ok, so he didn't technically fly there, but he did go halfway around the world in roughly ten seconds… so he's still set in Amestris time, which would be day where there in London it would be night… I'm pretty sure…

(2) I know it's a bag, but I'm not about to call it a wallet-bag-thing

(3) It means cabbage in French. According to my French teacher, it's a term of endearment.

(4) My friend and I love the videogame Okami, Ammy is the nickname for the main character.

The wands. Yes, many of you are probably confused at this. Well, when a wand isn't compatable with the person, it destroys other things, right? So with Ed's alchemy the effect is amplified and it tries to destroy itself. I'm making Hermione more… ditzy than normal. Don't worry, it won't last! Even if Ed could be a Death Eater, he reminds her so much of herself her first year at Hogwarts she can't help but be nice.

Here's the original wand scene… until I realized that I was writing in the wrong book. I had to find the book *sigh* since I had lost it. Actually, I found it then lost it again in the abyss that is my house, and just unearthed it from an unnaturally big stack of papers just a few weeks ago.

* * *

It was a dusty, old looking shop that smelled of ancient…things with a tinge of mold. Rickety old chestnut chairs for customers to sit in lined the wall by the door, a bulky desk centered in front of them. It was also made out of chestnut and, judging by the amount of dents, chips, and scratches, had been in use for many years. Rows upon rows of shelves stuffed full of boxes disappeared beyond the desk in the gloom. The hardwood floor was caked in dust and dirt. In fact, it appeared as if a plant had taken root in a particularly large crack, and was steadily growing into a full sized tree. Cobwebs hung from the meager lighting, the paint in places was peeling due to the extreme age. The desk had one light, what appeared to be the only relatively clean thing in the place. Covering the desk were piles of papers, trash, and suspiciously flammable looking pile of… stuff flowed over the edge and dribbled over on the side.

"Olivander?" From Hermione's puzzled expression, such conditions were not normal. There was a thud, and then a cloud of dust rose in the back, drifting to the front of the store. Hurried footsteps drifted to their ears until, finally, a mousy looking man appeared, dressed in robes covered in grime. His hair was oily and hung messily in his face, which was equally messy. He hadn't brushed his teeth in approximately five years, as they were a yellow black and his gums were a sickly yellow. His face and the way he walked made him appear to be rat-like, much like a very human looking Chimera.

"Olivander is no longer here due to some… health issues. I am to take care of the shop in his stead." He tried to smile, to appear welcoming and friendly, but the closest he got was a grimace. This transformed his face into one strikingly similar to a rabid mongoose.

"I'm sorry to hear that he's feeling unwell. It's too bad really; he's peculiar, but very nice. I hope he gets better soon." Hermione frowned, disappointed. " I wanted to ask him about my wand before going to Ron's house."

"You're here to buy a wand, so try this." He roughly slid a box that he had randomly grabbed off of a shelf across the desk, causing a puff of dust to rise and papers to fly everywhere due to the disturbance. Tentatively, Ed opened the box, reaching forward to grab the wand. When his fingers were inches away from the smooth wood, red and purple sparks flew from the tip of the wand, reminding Ed of the transmutation done years ago, and the wand flew toward a rare space of the wall that was not covered by a shelf, burying it's tip inches deep into the wood. They stared in amazement, no one had a clue what was going on, and two were thoroughly perplexed, as they had not seen this before. After a few more seconds of absolute silence, Hermione snapped out of her stunned reverie.

"That isn't normal, what just…?" Her head whipped back from Ed, still standing with his arm held out, to the wand embedded in the wall. Ed slowly lowered his arm back to his side, and the shopkeeper nervously cleared his throat.

"Well that was a no, let's try some other ones then." He walked down the rows, pulling random wand boxes off the shelves. Once again, however, the tips buried themselves into the wood surrounding the other one, turning the wall into a dartboard. The only difference was that there wasn't a target, and these weren't darts. They were wands.

With an exhausted sigh, the man flopped down onto a padded chair, then coughed and weakly flapped his hand in a vain attempt to clear the air because a large cloud of dust rose from the cushion. Hermione choked and lifted a dark red cotton handkerchief to her mouth to help block the dust.

"Mister…?" He started then stopped when he realized that he didn't know his customer's name.

"Elric." Ed helpfully supplied.

"Mr. Elric," he continued, attempting to be solemn. "It appears that I don't have a suitable wand for you in this store-"

"Well since I've only tried out, judging by the looks of it, one forty eighth of the wands you have in stock, it is highly unlikely that none of the other wands are going to be… compatible with me." Ed interrupted. In response, the man gaped like a fish, and Ed grinned at his victory. "It appears to me that you are just lazy and no longer wish to search for my wand. A real wand maker, based off of my inferences and observations, should be able to match people to their wand by their personality within ten or fifteen tries. Seeing as you have done neither, I would assume that you are not a wand maker or seller. Because of your inaptitude, I'll take my business, and money, to some other shop." A frosty glare completed his argument. The man gulped, his face pale. With a humph Ed pivoted on his heel and walked out the door, a frown of disappointment fixed firmly in place. Olivander's was supposed to be the best. Turning to Hermione, he inquired if there was another wand store nearby. Worry lines creased her brow as she hesitantly led the way. She stopped and glanced at the shop front in indecision.

Peeking up through his bangs, Ed's eyebrows rose in suspicion. It looked so run down and dustier that Olivander's, giving it an abandoned look. He strode up to the door, Hermione following meekly. Entering the shop Ed couldn't help but be surprised at the noticeable difference, and he found himself agreeing avidly to the taste of décor. It was as clean as a hospital, but without the smell of bleach, disinfectant, and air freshener. He took in the intricately carved desk made out of stone and carved into an ancient Xingese dragon. Gargoyles perched on the edge of each shelf, filled with neatly stacked wand boxes. The chairs in the room ended in clawed feet, armrests completed with roaring lion heads at the ends, worn smooth with use, and dark red cushions. Sunlight filtered in through stained glass windows depicting Greek myths. Pictures of mythological creatures (dragons, nymphs, centaurs, the minotaur, etc.) hung from the walls, perfectly straight when compared to the floorboard.

"Ah Mr. Elric, you must be here to claim your wand."


	4. Chapter 4

AN: I'm going to try to incorporate more of the book in starting now… but no guarantees, da?

Disclaimer: I do not own Fullmetal Alchemist or Harry Potter

Edward walked out of the store, twirling his new wand between the fingers of his left hand. Hermione tripped on her way out, catching the railing with a trembling hand. Looking back at her, Ed could see that her face was pale and lightly covered with a fear sweat; her eyes were slightly unfocused and glazed over. Concern edged it's way into his mind. Despite trying to be aloof, he cared for his new… friend.

"Come." He said curtly, leading her to where he vaguely remembered the bookstore was. When Al was terribly frightened he would engross himself in his favorite activity, helping their mom in her garden, or immersing himself in Alchemy books. From all her useless prattling he had managed to gather that she was a fellow lover of books and they were her main comfort in life. At the sight of the bookstore her trembling slowed, but still continued. Only when it became clear that the store was their destination did her trembling stop completely and her face regain some of it's lost color. A confused look replaced the fear in her eyes. "Pick one out." Ed commanded as they entered the store.

"Huh?" Now she was really confused.

"Pick out a book so that I can buy it for you." Ed rolled his eyes. Any more clarification and it would be like he was talking to a three year old.

"B-but wha-" She cut herself off as Ed focused a frosty, yet amused, glare at her.

"Because it's the least I can do after what you went through in the shop, and for accompanying me today." '_Not to mention equivalent exchange…_' he thought fondly. At this Hermione paused in whatever she was going to say. He could read her face like an open book. (AN: It's so old… but I just couldn't resist! XD) He guessed (from her posture, facial expression, etc…) that she wanted to tell him that friends spent time together constantly, and that he didn't have to give her something for spending time with him. However, he could also tell that she wasn't one to pass up free things, especially a book. He grinned and rolled his eyes playfully. "Just go pick one out already." While she was browsing he went to see if they had any new books delivered since yesterday. Pleased to find the shelves completely replenished, Ed set to work at finding more books to buy.

Stopping him self at one book case, he turned and was surprised to see that Hermione was leaning on a white washed pillar between two shelves, staring at him curiously while holding two books in her left hand.

"I tried to get your attention before," she explained "but it was like trying to get Ron and Harry to stop talking about Quidditch. That is to say, quite impossible." She sighed and gestured with the books. "I picked out two, I thought that I could pay for one of them."

"Nah, it's fine. If it's books then I'm more than willing to spend my money." Quickly Ed put his discards back neatly onto the shelf, grabbed the books he was going to buy, and briskly walked to the front of the store. Once they finally got to the head of the line he put his books on the wooden counter, motioning for Hermione to do the same. She laid one down, but stepped back into line holding the other.

"I know you said that it's fine and that you don't mind, but I'd much rather pay for this one myself." After a quick comparison between the two, Ed figured that the book that she insisted on paying for was at least twice as much as the other.

"I said that I would pay for it and I will." Ed stubbornly protested. " You wouldn't make me break my promise would you?" His eyes welled up with crocodile tears. Everyone in line and the cashier sweat dropped, wondering if devil horns and bat-like wings just appeared on this stranger.

"N-no! You wouldn't be breaking your promise at all, you did say you would only buy one…" she took another glance at him and her shoulders slumped in defeat. "If it really upsets you that much then go on ahead, be my guest." A wide grin snuck its way onto Ed's face as he snatched the book from her hand, placing it onto the counter with the others. He turned to hide his smile, but to no prevail. A hand gripped his shoulder and attempted to spin him around. Almost frantically he tried to suppress his smile before she saw it, but he found that it was impossible to make it vanish. Reluctantly he turned to face Hermione, who gasped when she saw his smile.

"Y-you played me!" Her mouth fell to the floor in astonishment. Internally her brain tried to analyze this information, but sputtered to a stop. This teenager had done a complete 180-degree turn, from shunning to teasing her. He chuckled, and shrugged off her hand, turning to the counter. Snapping out of his mini daze, the clerk quickly totaled up the price for the books, a sum that made Hermione raise her eye brows in amazement. To her surprise, Ed seemed unbothered by large amount of money, almost casual as he handed over the amount named. The clerk smiled and put the books in two separate bags before giving Ed his change. With a small nod and a "Thank you" they were out the door.

Bags in tow they made for the Leaky Cauldron to get lunch. There were plenty of empty tables, so they sat at a table meant for four. Putting their purchases on one of the extra chairs they ordered their lunch and, within a matter of minutes, were eating savory sandwiches with salads and drinks called butter beer. After lunch they did some more shopping for school (mainly for Hermione, Ed had bought everything that he needed and gave her his list). Their last stop was at a candy store, and by that time Hermione seemed drunk on the excitement of shopping.

Together they entered the store, letting a cool burst of air escape through the open doorway and into the street. Ed paused in indecision and amazement, starring at the multitude of candy lining the walls.

"Wow…" Ed breathed in wonder. Hermione smiled at his open-mouthed astonishment.

"It is the biggest candy store in the wizarding world for a reason." She declared.

The store was well lit, candy arranged neatly on the shelves and stacked artistically on top of tables for easier access. Despite the scores of people crowding the isles the floor was pristine, appearing to sparkle in the light. The walls and ceiling were white, but the store was not lacking in color due to the vibrant boxes and bags of sweets.

Hermione disappeared into the crowd, visible only by her bushy hair. Sticking to the walls, Ed circled the shop. At first he was baffled, who would want to eat candy that would make them act like a monkey? As he made his way slowly across the store the candy became more toned down. There were some normal forms of candy, like chocolate covered cherries and truffles, but also wizard candy such as chocolate frogs.

Taking a chocolate frog box off the shelf, Ed flipped it over, reading the description on the back. Not finding the information he wanted he glanced around, looking for an employee. He spotted one with bright pink hair walking away from him. Ed called out, but his voice was drowned out by the chorus of yells and shouts erupting from the other side of the store.

"Hello sir, may I help you?" A girl not much older than him peered inquisitively at him through her bangs. An antenna much like Ed's popped up from the top of her head, curling backward in the shape of a question mark. Her eyes matched her strangely purple hair. However it was a nice purple, not like the vibrant and usually neon colors seen elsewhere in the shop (it seemed like having odd colored hair was part of the shop dress code), but instead a calmer, soothing shade. It framed her face and partly covered both of her eyes. Remembering her question, he decided that it couldn't hurt to ask, just to be sure, about some of the more questionably candy.

"Actually yes, these aren't real frogs are they?" Ed inquired. The description had only talked about the cards that came with each box.

"N-no, they're chocolate in the shape of frogs with a spell on them to make them act like frogs." Ed hmphed, grabbed a few, and continued with his inspection. Adding a few more different types of candy to his bag, he waded through the crowd to pay for his items. Not seeing Hermione, Ed walked outside the store and decided to wait for Hermione near the entrance. Sitting on a strangely convenient wooden bench he gazed at the sky while his kitten chased after a nearby pigeon. Spying Hermione starting to leave the store he rescued Ammy from the pigeons that were viciously retaliating, and set her back onto his shoulder. Noticing the new bag clutched in his hand while she was exiting the store, Hermione grinned.

"What did you buy?" She asked.

"Just the kind of normal stuff. There's no way I'm going to eat something that'll make me even smaller." He shuddered at the thought while Hermione laughed.

"I just bought some things for my friends, Ron and Harry. I feel bad for Harry, and he seems rather depressed lately, so I decided that I'll get him something to cheer him up."

"That's nice…" Ed trailed off remembering all the times that Al had given him gifts for that purpose. Lost in memory lane he didn't notice the entrance to the Leaky Cauldron until he ran into it. Hermione giggled, she never would have suspected that Ed would be the type of person who would run into walls. Ed returned to his room, saying goodbye to Hermione, to stow away his new purchases while Hermione left for the Weasly's.

AN: wow… I think that Ed's going OC on me… I'll try harder, promise! Sorry for such a short chapter, but things have been really hectic at my house! Plus I kept on getting error type two… I'll try to have the next chapter out soon.

Ed and Hermione are now friends…they bonded over books.

A certain somebody noticed that, according to chapter two, Riza would have been 11 when she 'had' Ed. dot dot dot. Ok, well, PRETEND SHE'S NOW 48! (all this happened because I was too lazy to do the math.


	5. Chapter 5

With a big woosh and a cough Hermione appeared in the fireplace of the burrow. Immediately the sound of cooking accompanied by Mrs. Weasley yelling at Ron to tell the twins to hurry up with their packing, they wouldn't get dinner assaulted her ears. Stepping out of the fireplace she almost ran into levitating dishware.

"Oh Hermione dearie!" The red headed woman exclaimed. "Why don't you go and make sure Ginny hasn't forgotten anything for me. She's almost as bad as Ron when she's packing, just much neater." Glad to get out of the woman's way she bounded up the stairs, narrowly dodging a shoe that came flying out of Ron's doorway. Peaking timidly around the corner her eyes widened in amazement at the whirlwind that was going around the room, throwing object at random into a suitcase. Of course Ron would be the one to leave all of his packing for the last day. Darting across the doorway her hand was clipped by a flying book, and she frowned as it flew to the other side of the hallway and hit the wall, sliding to an ungainly stop at the floor. She walked over and picked it up, wincing as she saw that the cover was bent in half.

"Ronald Weasley!" Her inner book enthusiast came out as she stormed into the room, making the wind die down in a span of two seconds to reveal the teen behind it all, Ron. "What is this?" Ron blanched at her tone of voice, face growing pale at the sight of the book clutched in her hand. Hermione was a terrible force, Harry and Ron had soon learned when their friendship first started, when it came to book abuse.

"A book on the-"

"Never mind what it's for! Just what did you do to it? LOOK AT IT!" Ron found his face being assaulted by the bent, water and food stained pages of his history text book. "What did you do, drop it into a pot of stew?" Ron cringed…Hermione was just too scary sometimes and her intuition…

***flash back***

_Ron tromped down the stairs, after being pressured by his mom to finally get stared on his summer homework he had reluctantly slinked up to his room and grabbed his textbooks. Lunch had just been served, and he had started reading at breakfast. Breakfast! It was already lunch and he had only read twenty of the one hundred pages that they were assigned. Sitting down at his spot he watched numbly as his mom spooned potato soup into his bowl. His mind was swimming with excess information, making him feel like it was going to burst a leak any time now. The twins loudly announced their presence at the table with jokes, pausing to tease their younger brother._

"_Awww, is little ikkle Ronniekins finally starting his homework? Finding it too hard to comprehend yet? I'm sure we can provide you with lots of fainting fancies to get you out of class."_

"_Yeah, and they'll only cost you nine sickles, instead of the usual five."_

"_Really guys?" Ron's face lighted up with hope. Maybe he would be able to get out of class after all. They never did anything more then take a quiz on the reading so…Ginny starred at her brother in disgust as he rummaged in his pockets for his money while Fred and George exchanged twin grins._

"_Ron, they offered to sell you them for nine sickles, rather than five." Her older brother gazed blankly at her, pulling another few coins out of his pockets._

"_Yea, so?"_

"_Ah come on Ginny," Fred protested. "We gave him a deal."_

"_Yes, quite a deal it is…" George nudged Fred with an elbow as they snickered._

"_Ron, they changed the price from five to nine." Ginny was exasperated. Honestly, how dumb can you be? Judging from Ron's eyes she could tell that he didn't understand what she was getting at. "They raised the price, oh dumb brother of mine."_

"_Hey! No they didn't. They changed the price from five to nine, that's a bargain." Ginny rolled her eyes. Usually her brother wasn't stupid, ok, well yea he's normally dumb, but not this stupid!_

"_Ron, what's the order of numbers up to ten?"_

"_One two three four five six seven eight nine ten."_

"_And which one is higher, five or nine?"_

"_Ni- hey! Fred you upped the price!" Ron pouted while the twins were practically rolling on the floor with laughter. He slammed the book on the table only to have soup flung in his face. The tip of the hard cover had hit the edge of the bowl, turning it into a makeshift catapult. George and Fred laughed at his dumbstruck expression as soup dripped off his nose. The text book sat unnoticed on the table, soaking up the liquid as yelled at them and fussed over Ron._

***end flashback***

"Well…"

"Ugh, I can't believe you Ronald!" Ron got a face full of book as she stormed out of the room, continuing her initial journey to check up on Ginny. Hermione finally reached Ginny's room, knocking on the closed door politely before entering. Ginny was standing next to her bed, laying one last pair of neatly folded socks into the open suitcase lying next to her on top of the mattress. Unlike Ron's room, hers was pristine. Though the room had been undoubtedly ransacked in a desperate attempt to locate missing school supplies, everything was in its proper place.

"Hermione! How are you, boy you got tanner!" She grinned, glad to see her friend looking so well and happy.

"Nice too see you too, Ginny. I guess that I've gone swimming a lot with my parents, I didn't even notice!" They laughed, and Hermione explained to her her current mission. Together they searched the room for any stray items, but only found an extra quill kit that had laid forgotten underneath her bookcase. Satisfied that she hadn't forgotten anything, the lid was closed and they sat and chatted for a few minutes.

"Hey, why don't we go outside? It's so nice out…"

"Sure." Hermione agreed. "Some fresh air would be nice. You won't believe the air in London, it's gotten worse!" Hermione ranted about global warming and how they were treating the earth as they carted the trunk down the long staircase. Soon they bounded across the yard and laid down on the lush grass, hands acting as a cushion behind their heads as they gazed at the clouds scuttling by. They were caught by the rhythm of words, conversing as stars began to appear and the sky faded from blue to black. Pinpricks of light sparked down at them, turning the sky to a map of stars spread about above their heads. Talk moved from the summer vacation to the upcoming school year.

They were still there when Mrs. Weasley called them in for dinner. As they entered the house the delicious smell of the homemade cooking of potatoes, garlic, and beef overcame their senses, causing Hermione to pause in the doorway to breathe in deeply, practically tasting the dinner waiting to be consumed. She rushed to claim a spot net to the potatoes (her personal favorite) before all the good seats could be taken. Ron tumbled, down, nose turned to the air as he followed the trail of scents into the dining room. Stomach grumbling loudly he plopped down next to Hermione.

"Hey ya Herms." He grinned at her, eagerly awaiting the arrival of food. Hermione rolled her eyes, already knowing the unsaid question.

"No Ron, you cannot copy my essay for Charms."

"Awww, but I got everything else done! Can't you just cut me a bit of slack?"

"No. If you already finished all your other homework, then use your remaining free time to work on the essay instead of staring out into space." Ron glared in response, mood darkened by her refusal. Once his mother walked in, carrying the food he brightened considerably, picking up his fork in anticipation of the meal.

Soon everyone was seated and eating happily as the room swelled with chatter. The twins were discussing what sounded like plans for new products while Ginny adamantly chatted with her parents about the upcoming school year and Mr. Weasley's work. The food steadily disappeared and Ron turned from his conversation about typical boy stuff to his father, asking the question that had been on the tip of everyone's tongue.

"So… what is Sirius' house like?" The other conversations came to a stop while everyone turned expectantly toward Mr. Weasley.

"Well," he began, "it is quite old and…uh, it has lots of character." The description that he gave left his wife wincing. "It's a lot better now though. You should have seen it before we started cleaning." He chuckled awkwardly.

"Sounds like it needs a woman's touch." Mrs. Weasley commented, Hermione and Ginny nodding in agreement. Mr. Weasley grimaced.

"Molly, please don't start again."

"What?" She demanded. "I'm just saying the truth. Being all alone-"

"That's why he's letting us stay there." Mr. Weasley grumbled.

"-in that great big house of his, he must need some more company. After all those years in isolation, he needs someone to spice up his life a bit."

"Yes well, I offered for us to help with the cleaning while we are over." Mrs. Weasley positively beamed with delight at the aspect of cleaning, while the kids moaned in displeasure. Standing up, Mrs. Weasley began to clear the dishes. Ron grabbed the last brownie before the plate could levitate off the table and began stuffing his mouth with it. Chuckling Fred and George exchanged glances. Obviously they had put an experimental candy into the last brownie, but Ron didn't see their silent exchange and went right on eating. Ginny and Hermione watched in breathless anticipation to see what the new invention would do. Mrs. Weasley returned from the kitchen, done with the clean up, to see the girls rolling on the floor with laughter as her youngest son got pale and his eyes expanded and became pitch black, turning into the stereotypical alien*. Her eyes bulged and she rushed to kneel at Ron's side, hurriedly reciting counter charms. After successfully returning him to normal and exploding on the twins, they assembled in the front hall.

"Alright gang," Mr. Weasley began "I need you to memorize this address in order to get past the protective charms." Nervously the note was passed around, returning to Mr. Weasley who, with a flick of his wand, made it burst into flame. "Remember it?" They all nodded. "Good, keep it in the front of your heads. Now off we go!" They were organized into a group of three and a group of four. Holding onto the arms of Mr. or Mrs. Weasley with one hand and their luggage with the other, they apparated into the dining room. With a resounding crack they appeared, stumbling around as they tried to recognize their surroundings. Hermione was the first of the teens to recover, and she calmly took in their surroundings while trying to ignore the faint nausea that still remained. Though the floor, table and chairs were clean, the same could not be said about the paintings and sculptures that decorated the walls. They were covered with a film of dust with cobwebs stretching across the gaps to connect the different figures. Ron, who had collapsed onto the floor from the spinning sensation recoiled with a gasp as the biggest spider Hermione had ever seen scuttled by.

"Well," Mrs. Weasley said with a humph "I was right about it needing a woman's touch." Mr. Weasley groaned as the dreaded subject was brought back up. Hermione had to stifle a smile at the friendly bickering that continued. At the sound of footsteps and a swish of robes the married couple stopped their arguing, and turned towards the doorway.

"Ah, I thought I heard something. Welcome to my humble abode." Sirius entered the room, followed closely by Dumbledore, and gave a mock bow.

"It's good to see you too, Sirius." Greetings chorused from around the room as they got caught up. Dumbledore stayed behind to talk to Mr. and Mrs. Weasley as Sirius showed the teens to their rooms. Ron practically walking on top of Hermione to avoid the spiders that scuttled away at their approach.

"Now I know that the house isn't really sterile in general, but the bedrooms, bathrooms, and kitchen have been cleaned." Carting their luggage up the numerous flights of stairs slowed them down some, but soon they were getting ready for bed, exhausted by their travel.

* * *

Setting down the last of his books, Ed let loose a tired sigh, rubbing his eyes and checking his pocket watch for the time. It was three in the morning, he had stayed up all night reading those ridiculous books. Every word that he had read were complete lies. Where was the equivalence? And yet… hadn't he seen enough proof to attest its existence? While on his shopping spree there had been enough evidence, seen by his very own eyes, to convince him that it wasn't an elaborate trick, but it all seemed too good to be true. Letting out another world weary sigh he let himself relax into the chair. Ammy twitched from her position on Ed's lap, rolling onto her back in her sleep as her tail twitched, tickling Ed's wrist. At the unexpected movement Ed started.

"When did you get there, little one?" He murmured, tenderly stroking her head. He wasn't really surprised that he hadn't noticed her presence, he was known to zone out of everything else when he was reading. Only his mom and Al could ever get him to stop, though Winry with her handy dandy wrench could sometimes shock him out of his trance. However, he had been slowly breaking the habit. He continued stroking her gently, enjoying the feeling of her soft fur on his fingers. With her on his lap there was no way he would be able to walk to the bed without waking her. Slumping some more to make himself more comfortable he slowly felt himself drift off into sleep.

* * *

* look at Tony from Axis Powers Hetalia

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, or Fullmetal Alchemist.

Hey, I'm back. Sorry for taking so long… but, nyah, the next chapter should be coming fairly soon. Usually I have everything written out, but once I get onto my computer to type it I'm distracted so easily. No excuses, I'll try harder. Now that I'm on summer vacation I might have more time to write, but my parents are going to keep me busy with math and stuff.

AN Edited: ok… So I'll admit that I have had this written for a while, but once I found my book… again… I realized that I was mixing books five and seven. So… Everything has been edited, and should now be correct. I'll try to keep better tabs on my book so it won't get lost quite as easily.

Since it is indeed summer vacation I will have more time to write, but not too long ago my grandmother (the only grandparent left) had a minor stroke, so it's been hectic. Plus she is getting cataract surgery (one eye done now) and is living with us for the next…. two months I believe it is, so my days are filled with catering to her every need and whim. Not to mention her very annoying and mean dog is staying with us too, so I get the job and "honor" of distracting him every time my dad's in the room (he's been bitten twice so far).


	6. Chapter 6

Hermione shrieked as the door opened to reveal her friend, Harry Potter, who she hadn't seen for what felt like years. She had been at Number 12 Grimmauld Place with the Weasleys for weeks, helping out with the cooking and cleaning. When the news of Harry joining them a weeks ago had been announced she had thrown herself into the preparations with new determination. He would find himself more at home in a cleaner house. Now, with Harry walking in through the door, she could barely contain her excitement at the reunition of the Golden Trio.

"HARRY! Ron, he's here, Harry's here!" she cried, hugging him for all she's worth, "We didn't hear you arrive! Oh, how _are_ you? Are you all right? Have you been furious with us? I bet you have, I know our letters were useless- but we couldn't tell you anything, Dumbledore made us swear we wouldn't, oh, we've got so much to tell you, and you've got to tell us- the dementors! When we heard- and that Ministry hearing- it's just outrageous, I've looked it all up, they can't expel you, they just can't, there's provision in the Decree for the Restriction of Underage Sorcery for the use of magic in life-threatening situations-"

"Le him breathe, Hermione." Ron interrupted, grinning with amusement while he closed the door behind Harry. Harry was momentarily distracted from his friends with the arrival of Hedwig, who landed on his shoulder before nibbling his ear affectionately. Hermione examined her friend while Ron continued talking to him, only to be brought back into the conversation at the sound of her name.

"Yeah, Hermione's already said."

"He seemed to think it was best, Dumbledore, I mean." She said, picking up what she had missed in a matter of seconds.

"Right." Harry sounded unconvinced and unbelieving.

"I think he thought you were safest with the Muggles-" Ron began, only to be cut off by an extremely incredulous Harry.

"Yeah? Have either of you been attacked by dementors this summer?" Hermione felt like crying. It wasn't supposed to be like this. Harry was supposed to arrive, and they would all catch up before heading off to dinner after the meeting had finished. Like old times at the Burrow.

"Well, no- but that's why he's had people from the Order of the Phoenix tailing you all the time-"

"Didn't work that well, though, did it? Had to look after myself after all, didn't I?"

"He was so angry, Dumbledore. We saw him. " Hermione could tell that her voice was taking on a more awestruck tone, but she couldn't help it as she relived the moment. "When he found out Mundungus had left before his shift had ended. He was scary."

"Well, I'm glad he left. If he hadn't, I wouldn't have done magic and Dumbledore would probably have left me at Privet drive all summer." Harry responded.

"Aren't you… aren't you worried about the Ministry of Magic hearing?" Her voice became lowered and more hushed with disbelief.

"No. So why's Dumbledore been so keen to keep me in the dark? Did you-er- bother to ask him at all?"

"We told Dumbledore we wanted to tell you what was going on. We did, mate. But he's really busy now, we've only seen him twice since we came here and he didn't have much time, he just made us swear not to tell you important stuff when we wrote, he said the owls might be intercepted-"

"He could still've kept me informed if he'd wanted to. You're not telling me he doesn't know ways to send messages without owls."

"I though that too, but he didn't want you to know _anything_." It was clear that, though she had followed his orders, she most definitely didn't agree with them. Realizing this, however, didn't do anything to ease his anger.

"Maybe he thinks I can't be trusted." Hermione was shocked that he had even suggested it.

"Don't be thick."

"Or that I can't take care of myself-"

"Of course he doesn't think that!" Hermione was beginning to loose her patience with her friend.

"So how come I have to stay at the Dursleys' while you two get to join in everything that's going on here?" Harry's dam broke, eyes flashing with emotion as his voice rose in volume. "How come you two are allowed to know everything that's going on-?"

"We're not!" Ron interrupted desperately. "Mum won't let us near the meetings, she says we're too young-"

"SO YOU HAVEN'T BEEN IN THE MEETINGS, BIG DEAL! YOU'VE STILL BEEN HERE, HAVEN'T YOU? YOU'VE STILL BEEN TOGETHER! ME, I'VE BEEN STUCK AT THE DURSLEYS' FOR A MONTH! AND I'VE HANDLED MORE THAN YOU TWO'VE EVER MANAGED AND DUMBLEDORE KNOWS IT- WHO SAVED THE SORCERER'S STONE? WHO GO T RID OF RIDDLE? WHO SAVED BOTH YOUR SKINS FROM THE DEMENTORS?" Harry's voice, though he was already yelling, grew even louder as the emotions that he kept pent up inside broke out. Tears of frustration stung his eyes. Hermione looked close to tears, while Ron was just standing there, shocked to silence. For some reason his friend's expressions just made him feel even more pissed off than he already was. The red of rage began to tint his vision.

"Harry, we're really sorry!" Hermione finally stood her ground, voice rising from the meager whisper from minutes earlier, tears welling up in her eyes even more than before at her friend's rage. "You're absolutely right, Harry- I'd be furious if it was me!"

"What is this place anyway?" Harry finally started to calm down, much to the relief of Hermione and Ron.

"Headquarters of the Order of the Phoenix." Ron replied at once, glad that Harry was no longer yelling.

"Is anyone going to bother telling me what the Order of the Phoenix-?"

"It's a secret society, Dumbledore's in charge, he founded it. It's the people who fought against You-Know-Who last time."

"Who's in it?"

"Quite a few people-"

"-we've met about twenty of them but we think that there are more…" Ron let his sentence drift off at Harry's vicious glare.

"_Well_?" he looked from Ron to Hermione and back again accusingly.

"Er, well what?"

"_Voldemort_! What's happening? What's he up to? Where is he? What are we doing to stop him?"

"We've told you, the Order don't let us in on their meetings, so we don't know the details-but we've got a general idea-" she nervously added, seeing the frustration returning to Harry's face.

"Fred and George have invented Extendable Ears, see, they're really useful." Ron said, hoping to distract Harry from their lack of information.

"Extendable-?"

"Ears yeah. Only we've had to stop using them lately because Mum found out and went berserk. Fred and George had to hide them all to stop Mum binning them. But we got a good bit of use out of them before Mum realized what was going on. We know some of the Order are following Death Eaters, keeping tabs on them, you know-"

"-some of them are working on recruiting more people to the order-" Hermione cut in.

"- and some of them are standing guard over something, they're always talking about guard duty." Ron finished, Hermione absent mindedly reflecting on how they were finishing each other's sentences like the twins.

"Couldn't have been me, could it?" Harry asked sarcastically, raising an eyebrow.

"Oh yeah." Ron realized, a sheepish look crossing his face at the obviousness of the answer.

"So what have you two been doing, if you're not allowed in meetings? You said you'd been busy." He demanded, putting his hands on his hips, rather like Hermione did when she was flustered, and pouting slightly.

"We have," Hermione said quickly, looking away before she could laugh. "We've been decontaminating this house, it's been empty for ages and stuff's been breeding in here. We've managed to clean out the kitchen and most of the bedrooms more. Sorry Harry but Sirius, though he tries his hardest, just isn't cut out for cleaning. I think we're doing the drawing room tomo-AARGH!"

With two twin cracks, Fred and George appeared in the middle of the room, scaring the bejeebers out of Harry, who did his best in resisting the urge to cry like a little girl. It worked, for the most part, reducing the scream to a little more than a whimper.

"Stop _doing_ that!" Hermione cried, fed up with the twins after living with them for the past week.

"Hello, Harry," George grinned at him, mischief twinkling in his eyes. "We thought we heard you dulcet tones."

"You don't want to bottle up your anger like that, Harry, let it all out. There might be a couple of people fifty miles away who didn't hear you." Fred added, beaming an identical smile at Harry.

"You two passed your Apparation tests, then?" asked Harry, not in the mood for the twin's fun and games.

The twins grinned as they proceeded to answer Harry's quite obvious question, before going on to tease their younger sibling. With a proud smirk, Fred introduced Harry to their latest product, the Extendable ears. Their plans to eavesdrop on the meeting were brutally slaughtered when Ginny announced that the door had been Imperturbed. Hermione sighed and sat down on the bed as they explained to Harry the deal with Percy and the Ministry. She had wanted to tell Ron and Harry about Edward, but what with Harry's fit and his obsessive hatred of Snape getting in the way, it was difficult to find the time to inform them of her latest friend. She really needed a second opinion on him, though he seemed like a nice enough guy, the perfect gentleman, some people were excellent at acting and making people believe in something that was not true. It would just have to wait until after dinner.

"Yeah, well, your name got dragged into the row. Percy said the only evidence was you word and… I dunno… he didn't think it was good enough." Ron glanced sheepishly at Harry.

"Percy takes the _Daily Prophet_ seriously." Hermione snapped, rather annoyed, while the others nodded in agreement.

"What are you talking about?" Harry was completely clueless, looking from face to face for answers. Their expressions were guarded, they watched him warily as if expecting him to pop.

"Haven't- haven't you been getting the _Daily Prophet_?" Hermione asked nervously, attempting to breech the subject carefully.

"Yeah, I have!" Harry replied.

"Have you-er- been reading it thoroughly?"

"Not cover to cover," Harry admitted. "If they were going to report anything about Voldemort it would be headline news, wouldn't it!" they all flinched at the sound of the name, a conditioned reaction that made Harry twitch slightly in irritation.

"Well, you'd need to read it cover to cover to pick it up, but they-um- they mention you a couple of times a week." Hermione's tone became more and more like the voice one would use when talking to little children or a particularly dense person. Ginny and Ron agreed with her, backing up Hermione as all three of them attempted to keep Harry from bursting again while the twins looked on in amusement.

Fred and George fled the room as Mrs. Weasley came up to tell them dinner was ready. It progressed in a steady fashion. There was some tension among the adults, who were waiting for Harry to ask them about the goings on of the magical world, specifically what Voldemort was up to. Once dinner was finished, the dreaded subject was brought up, but by Sirius, not Harry. They were allowed to get a brief explanation of what was happening, though Ginny was sent out of the room. However, they had forgotten to put an Imperturbable Charm on the door, and scant minutes after it was closed an extendable ear could just barely be seen through the crack underneath it.

Thirty minutes later they were released, ordered to go to bed, and Ginny discreetly passed the ear to Fred, who pocketed it with a smile. Hermione hesitated in the doorway to the room that Ron and Harry shared. She wanted to tell them about Ed, but it was late, practically one in the morning, and there was always tomorrow. Still, the doxie cleanup would probably last all day, leaving her with no time tomorrow either.

"Hey, um, Harry? Ron?" Hermione asked tentatively.

"Yeah Hermione?"

"What's up?"

"Well, I wanted to ask your opinion on something, but I didn't get the chance."

"Aww, Herms, can't it wait 'till morning?" Hermione pouted in response to the red head's question, causing the tips of his ears to light up and he shifted uncomfortably where he sat. Harry grinned, gesturing to his bed in an invitation to sit. Taking Harry up on his offer, she bounced into the room, landing lightly on the bed.

"Well, I ran into this guy when I was at Diagon Alley…" Ron and Harry stared at her, mouths agape, and she trailed off apprehensively.

"Hermione! What if he was a Death Eater?" Harry cried.

"Yeah, Harry's right!" Ron piped up, face flushing red.

"He's really nice, much better than you two," Hermione glared. "The perfect gentleman." Harry scoffed.

"Yeah right," Ron nodded enthusiastically in agreement. "Some people can act you know. Look at Snape, though he obviously isn't good enough to fool me, he has Dumbledore convinced he's against Voldemort. But fine," Harry gave in. "Lets just pretend he's not a Death Eater. What's the big deal? So you met this guy who held the door open for you or whatever. What's it to us?"

Hermione sighed, and told them about her day. By the end they were both thoroughly convinced that he was a Death Eater hell bent on befriending Hermione to get to Harry and find out his weakness, as well as secret information on the Order's actions. Exasperated, Hermione stormed out of the room to go to bed, muttering darkly all the way about the idiocy of her two best friends. Striding into the room she shared with Ginny, she swiftly tore off her cloths, not even taking the time to fold them up like usual and instead leaving them in a heap on the floor as she pulled on her pajamas. At least Ginny would be able to give her an unbiased opinion about him.

* * *

The following weeks passed by in a blur. Already done with catching up with the reading material, Edward itched to try out the spells that he had learned, just to see if they really worked. Since he wasn't allowed to practice magic while not in school, he had to be content with gathering more books, and already his collection was quite large. Remembering it all wasn't a problem. Leaving Alphonse without money was. Even with his deep pockets he couldn't afford spending all his money now on books; he could not leave Al back at home without any means of support. Instead he sat in a corner of the store all day, reading. The clerks didn't mind, they were enthused that someone shared their passion for learning. By the time he was supposed to depart for the school Ed had read, quite literally, every book in the store and was considered a permanent presence. He knew every detail (except for the extremely private part) of the clerk's lives. Many who entered the store believed that Ed and the employees had been friends for years, not the scant two weeks that had passed. On Sundays, when the store was closed, Ed retreated to his room, rereading his purchases.

One of the clerks, who was quite skilled with Charms, cast a spell on the purse Dumbledore had given him (which Ed fondly referred to as his black hole) that made the opening stretchable to the point of insanity. Give him a day and he could have Big Ben in his pocket. Thanks to this, the only thing he walked onto the train with was his black hole bag and Ammy. He had gotten direction from Tom on how to get to platform nine and three-quarters, and though he found it strange to walk through a wall, he entered the train with no problems. Pushing through the small crowd that partly blocked the hallway he secured an empty cabin for himself, and checked the time. It had taken less time to get there than he expected, so he had another twenty five minutes to spare. Sighing, Ed pulled out a book from his pouch and began to read as Ammy curled down right next to him on the seat.

With a barely noticeable jerk the train was off, bound for Hogwarts. Ed was startled out of his book as the door to his compartment slip open and a very soft voice spoke through the opening.

"Oh, hello there. Do you mind if I sit here?" Ed looked up from his reading to inspect this newcomer. Her dirty-blond hair reached her waist and barely noticeable eyebrows. She seemed like her head was always in the clouds, kind of like those drug addicts that popped up occasionally on the side of the street, but there wasn't the slightest scent of smoke or other questionable objects on her.

"Sure, go ahead." Ed gestured to the bench in front of him. "I don't mind." She smiled and nodded, taking a seat next to the window.

"I don't remember seeing you before. I'm Luna, Luna Lovegood, but most people call me Loony behind my back." Her matter-of-fact way of saying that people made fun of her threw Ed off, but he recovered his manners to introduce himself within a matter of seconds.

"Edward. Edward Elric, but I prefer Ed." She nodded to show that she heard him then turned to gaze out at the scenery. Getting bored after a while, Luna took out a magazine while Ed continued to read his book, completely oblivious to her actions. The train continued rumbling on, and for a moment the comfortable silence continued uninterrupted. Neither noticed when the door slid open then closed, but both were jolted out of their reading (though Ed glanced up once then buried his nose back onto his book) as the door slid open again, accompanied by a voice.

"Hi, Luna, is it ok if we take these seats?" A girl with bright red hair and freckles asked. Luna nodded her consent. The girl moved aside, revealing two boys standing beside her. One had messy black hair and vibrant green eyes, and looked to be quite lanky with a scar that was barely visible, hidden behind his hair. The other was rather round-faced, and rather pudgy. He was timid, and for some reason looked afraid of Luna, like she was crazy and would attack him the moment he moved. Luna nodded, giving them her permission.

"Thanks," the girl replied. They stowed their three trunks and a cage with a white snowy owl in the luggage rack, then they all sat down, the boys somewhat uncomfortably, on the seats. "Had a good summer, Luna?" The girl broke the silence.

"Yes," Luna replied. Ed noticed that she was staring at the boy with black hair. Inwardly he shrugged and returned his concentration to his book. It was really not his problem if she didn't like him or something, she was the one that gave them permission to sit. "Yes, it was quite enjoyable, you know. _You're_ Harry Potter."

"I know I am." The black haired boy- Harry- Ed corrected himself, replied.

'Ah so that's Harry Potter. He doesn't look like all that, but then again appearances can be deceiving.' Once again, he shrugged and withdrew his (nonexistent) input from the conversation. The pudgy one glanced nervously at him, and opened his mouth as if to ask his name but thought better of it at the last moment. Luna turned towards the other boy, eyes filled with a curiosity that Ed remembered seeing before in Al when they were children.

"And I don't know who you are."

"I'm nobody," the boy hurriedly replied, unused to the non-threatening attention of an outsider.

"No you're not," the girl sharply admonished. "Neville Longbottom- Luna Lovegood. Luna's in my year, but in Ravenclaw."

"Wit beyond measure is man's greatest treasure," Luna sing-songed, slightly giggling mischievously before raising her magazine (once again upside down) enough to hide her face. Harry turned toward Edward, suspicion clear in his eyes, turning the atmosphere from cherry to hostile in a matter of milliseconds. Not that Ed noticed –or cared- as he had gotten to the stage where he would block everything out.

"Who are you?" (AN: I'm Canada…*) He gave him a once over, taking in the strange looking cat on his lap, golden eyes, and odd dress. Edward, not hearing him, continued reading. "Hey! I asked what your name is." Harry gave Ed a not-so-gentle shove, startling him out of his book.

"Excuse me?" Edward raised one eyebrow as he struggled not the throttle the teen.

"Yeah, I was talking to you. I asked what your name was," his smirk resembled that of a fox. "Judging by your size, you must be a first year." It took all of Ed's self control to not bash in Harry's head right then and there, though once he remembered his mission (and how mad Mustang and Alphonse would be if he blew it) the job became much easier. However, it didn't prevent him from gritting his teeth so hard his jaw hurt later.

"Edward Elric, though I prefer Ed." His forced smile turned predatory as he starred down the boy who lived. "And I'm not a first year." He spat, glaring. "I'm transferring into year five, an exchange student, you might say." Grimm satisfaction filled Ed as Harry's visage changed to surprise. The only indication that Luna was listening to the conversation was a slight rising of eyebrows at his change of tone. Silence ensued as the stare down continued.

"G-guess what I got f-for my birthday?" asked Neville after gathering up his courage to break the silence. Ed's gaze flicked across to Neville, lips twitching upwards in a small smile at the boy's courage. He returned to his book, exactly as he was before Harry had so rudely interrupted him.

"Another Remembrall?" guessed Harry, secretly glad to have an excuse to break gazes with Ed.

"No, I could do with one, though, I lost the old one ages ago… no, look at this." He dug out a small gray cactus that was covered in boils and planted in a small clay pot. Ed, who recognized it from one of the Herbology books he had read, raised his eyebrows. Mimbulus Mimbletonia were supposed to be exceedingly rare. The book he had read didn't say much other than that, but it did have a, quite detailed, drawing. Seconds later he was proven correct by Neville's proud exclamation of "Mimbulus Mimbletonia. It's really, really rare, I don't know if there's one in the greenhouse at Hogwarts, even. I can't wait to show it to Professor Sprout." Ed retracted himself from the conversation (which no one knew he was paying attention to anyway), returning to his book only to be, once again, jolted out of his reading by the explosion of a fowl smelling, dark green slime that coated the inside of the cabin. He groaned, the stupid brats had poked one of the boils. The kitten, gone unnoticed and undisturbed until then, shot up from her nap with a yowl when the sap coated her fur, unsuccessfully trying to shake it off. Ed, who had almost gotten a face full, starred aghast at his slime covered book that was his unintentional shield.

"S-sorry, I haven't tried that before," Neville gasped "didn't realize it would be quite so… don't worry, though, Stinksap's not poisonous." Ed resisted the urge to chuckle as Harry spat out a mouthful.

"Too bad…" he muttered, receiving shocked looks from the other occupants of the compartment. He drifted back to his book after using his wand to clean the slime off of it, Ammy, and himself. Edward continued to read even with the interruption of Cho and Luna, who had accidentally kicked him while shifting in her seat. Even the entrance of Ron and Hermione went unnoticed. Ammy was hidden within the folds of Edward's rather large coat, and his face was covered by the book so Hermione didn't recognize him right away. She just looked at him oddly, she remembered seeing him before, but without his face she couldn't quite place it. It wasn't until Luna started laughing hysterically and Ed tilted his book to the side in order to see what had startled Ammy into impaling her claws in his flesh leg that Hermione recognized him.

"Ed! What are you doing here?" He started slightly, as he hadn't expected to run into her on the train.

"Hello Hermione," he set his book aside then nodded a greeting. "I didn't expect to see you again so soon." She grinned.

"Neither did I, but where's Ammy?" She questioned, looking around the compartment for the sleek kitten. "I don't see her."

"Ah, she likes to cuddle." His smile was genuine as he fished Ammy out from the folds of his clothes for her. "I'm here as an exchange student, just for a year. After that I'm returning home." The attention of the compartment was drawn from the two to Ginny, who had groaned loudly.

"That's why your name sounded so familiar. You're the guy that Hermione met at Diagon Alley!" Ed turned to Hermione, an eyebrow raised as a silent question.

"Well, I just told Ginny, Harry and Ron. Though, the latter two didn't pay much attention. We share practically everything with each other, and I must admit that you told me very little about yourself and acted quite…" she shifted apprehensively in her seat "suspicious sometimes…" Ed grinned to show that he wasn't mad at her.

"I suppose it's only to be expected, my brother and I share everything too," his smile expanded with the mention of Alphonse.

"I didn't know you had a brother!" Harry and Ron shared another secretive glance before sneaking out of the compartment. Edward ended up answering the numerous questions thrown at him by Hermione, Ginny, and even occasionally Luna until the two other members of the Golden Trio returned, his closed book laying next to him, forgotten. Edward resumed reading and, despite Hermione multiple attempts to being him into the conversation, managed to finish it by the time they had arrived at Hogwarts.

* * *

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or Fullmetal Alchemist.

AN: Here's the new chapter. I actually wrote chapter six, then remembered that I had to/ wanted to include Hermione telling Ron and Harry about Ed, so I went and added the beginning part. I hope that you don't mind, it makes it a lot longer I suppose, so it's fine. Sorry for taking so long, I get distracted too easily. XD I'll work on that. Incase you can't tell… I really don't like Harry. I've been trying to keep my writing as unbiased, but it leaks through at times. Honestly the 'screaming like a little girl' part…. I just couldn't resist! *pout* please don't blame me.

When I had Hermione describe Ed, I couldn't help but laugh. I was thinking what to say then was like 'Ok! Just describe England without the eyebrows, short hair, and green eyes and it'll all be good!' Hetalia has invaded every aspect of my life! And I know that Ed isn't usually gentlemanly, but hey… he is in a strange place (he doesn't even know where that place is, as the briefing neglected to mention that) and everything is different and stuff. Plus it would be pretty creepy for him what with the levitating objects and stuff moving on its own, so he's trying to figure out how he's supposed to act. He will become more….(almost) crude (but in a good Edish way) later on when he starts to figure stuff out.

*Hetalia. Again. But of course, how could I resist?

9


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